Brenda Brathwaite: A salute and a question

This video created both excitement and a few questions for me; Since I'm at work, I'll try and keep this short.

1. The enthusiasm ramps you up
2. The points are actually on point
3. I wonder what's really being said.

While Brathwaite differentiates the Designs from these Neo-Designers in part of her speech, but also seems to be inclusive of the new nature of Social Gaming.

Shake Ups are Necessary

When something new emerges you either assimilate or find it useless. The fact is Social gaming has found serious traction in these last few years, and rightfully so. No one else is doing it as well as they are.

Metrics and Traditional design are not enemies. Rather, I see a changing industry, where neither rules yet both are important. How can you simply oust Zynga for doing what is a great job? Their methods, while not agreeable to some, show results.

What do I think that means:

it means Game Designers, as they are now, need to begin thinking more methodically from time to time. As Free2Play gains traction with a larger audience and begins to dominate the Facebook Platform, it must seriously be considered.

I don't agree with Churn and Burn. What I do agree with is that this platform had to start somewhere. It didn't just start, it stole a fucking rocket from the Russians, took it to the moon, built a death laser, and started shooting planets and asteroids because they fucking could.

Silliness aside, it set the ground work for what is now an ACTUAL platform. The same can be said for Indies on the SmartPhone movement. We are growing, our roots expanding. Let it grow! In whatever way we can, it will grow and as it does those of us who wish to refine those processes WILL and WILL make great games for everyone on these platforms!

Let us take each other's hands, and learn.

My 3DS' identity crisis

So I managed to get a 3DS, at long last. It is awesome... but it is not without its flaws and a crippling identity crisis. Many video game blogs and news sites are drooling so much over this thing, I'm afraid they might dry out... so instead of doing that, I'm going to give you the real deal on Nintendo's newest handheld. Please make a quick mental note of the underlined sections, and just read ahead, as I will be explaining their meaning later in the post.


First I'm going to start by giving my full impressions on the hardware and the software itself. Put your reading glasses on, folks: It's a long one... but if it's legit, solid, and detailed information along with an honest and thought-provoking conclusion you want, then you're in the right place.


The hardware itself: The pros and cons
After all is said and done, and for what it's worth, this thing really is pretty freakin' awesome. The 3D effect is just as impressive as people say... it will really blow you away when you first lay eyes on it. Does it "get old"? I think it's too early to tell for sure, but I'm already feeling like this is the way games are supposed to be seen, and now that I've put a few hours into playing 3D games on it, I'm not so much "wowed" by the 3D effect as I am "happy that 3D graphics are actually in 3D finally". It does cause some eye strain for me, and adjusting back to real life is weird and... well, it's kinda hard to describe, but I get this same feeling after watching a 3D movie in the theaters. When playing a game on it in 3D, a 30-minute play session is about all I can take, and that is what is recommended by Nintendo. Inclusion of the ability to adjust and even disable the 3D effect was a wise decision, and I find myself playing with the intensity of the 3D effect situationally very often. It's also important to note that anything more than "very slight" movement will cause you to "snap out" of the 3D effect, and I even find this happening whilst sitting still and playing Street Fighter, just from the excited movement of my hands.


The size of the 3D screen on top is pretty nice. I feel like it could've been bigger, and the choice to forgo the normal 16:9 widescreen ratio in favor of 15:9 is puzzling. I wonder what limited its size, though? Was it production constraints? Maybe they wanted it to be uniform height with the bottom screen. For that matter, why are the two screens different sizes at all? That really doesn't make much sense as you're looking at it and playing with it, I must say. Speaking of the bottom screen, it is actually slightly smaller than the DSi's touchscreen, which is also a strange decision and a little disappointing. Overall, the screens are bright and brilliant, and do their respective jobs, but the decisions Nintendo made with this aspect of the hardware are bizarre, to say the least.


The analog slider feels great. This isn't your grandpa's PSP nub, this thing feels really nice under your thumb. Unfortunately, I've yet to use it for any FPS gameplay, but the elasticity of it feels spot-on. I also discovered that the analog slider acts as an optional replacement for the d-pad when playing "normal DS" games, and this made me very happy. Playing some of the slow-and-grindy RPGs that I hold so dear is way more comfortable, and for that I am very grateful. One thing I feel I should mention-- when the analog slider is fully extended in any direction, the "hole" in which it sits becomes exposed. This worries me, because as I carry this thing around, I fear that dirt and other crap will get inside that hole and fuck it up. I guess I'll need to be extra careful with it.


The d-pad included is brilliantly clicky and bouncy, and is one of the best nintendo has ever produced in those categories, but its size and positioning on the front of the console is an absolute joke. Woe was me when I finally got down on some Street Fighter 4 and found that the d-pad was very difficult to work with. When sitting down at my desk at work and playing (heh heh) with my arms rested on my desk, I found the positioning and size to be much less of an issue for me... but whilst standing, crouching, or sitting with my hands in my lap, using the d-pad isn't very comfortable, makes me feel like I'm going to drop my 3DS, and on top of all that, it is difficult to be effective with it while playing an action-packed game such as Street Fighter 4 or Tetris DS. To be clear, the positioning and size of the d-pad is a bummer unless you're chilling in a La-Z-Boy or sitting at a desk.


The card slot for 3DS game insertion is the best one yet. It's not too springy, and I've yet to have my game accidentally pop out on me when walking around, as has happened with my DSi more times than I can count.


The select/home/start buttons are irritating, to say the least. They're smooth and flat, and positioned as part of the screen, but they're not backlit-touchscreen buttons, like the ones on my Droid Incredible, they're... well, they're just... the worst kind of buttons imaginable. They're like little tiny nubs beneath one long piece of thin plastic, so in the dark, you can hardly tell what you're pushing at all. I would've preferred standard stick-out normal analog buttons to these any day of the week. They also moved the stylus to the back of the machine again, and it too has been inconvenient for me to access in the dark, although I appreciate the inclusion of the metal telescopic stylus, as opposed to the old tiny plastic ones.


Whose idea was it to again go with the 0.3 megapixel cameras? Can it possibly be that much cheaper in production than just going with 1 or 2 megapixel cameras at the very least? The cameras are just as bad as the DSi (which is to say that they're horrible), but for the price of the 3DS and the fact that it released in a year where my cell phone includes a stunning 8 megapixel camera... it is unacceptable. Taking 3D pictures is worthless anyway, so hopefully they'll add video support for it later, so that the cameras aren't completely useless.


For some reason, Nintendo saw fit to remove the DS' headphone jack, with the slot for advanced control through the headset, and replace it with a normal headphone jack. I have no idea why, but it bums me out that the official Nintendo DS headset I own is not compatible with the 3DS.


I'm pretty neutral on the "volume slider versus volume buttons" argument, but overall I prefer the buttons of the DSi. The slider provided on the 3DS is tight though, and offers precision control, so I really can't complain... and the same goes for the 3D-effect slider, too.


Wow... it's the same power jack as my DSi! This isn't actually a Nintendo first, but it kinda feels like it is, as they rarely use the same power jack for two pieces of hardware. Either way, I'm pretty happy about not having to buy extra power adapters and a new car adapter. I always like to have extra adapters around. Since I'm accustomed to always having my portable gaming handheld available for play, I never want to have to worry about the battery life... err... battery... battery life...


The battery is absolutely just as terrible as everyone has been saying, and from my personal experience, I find that I'm lucky to get more than 3.5 hours out of the battery before it craps out on me. How about that one? Good thing I keep a bunch of chargers around everywhere... but still... I can already see this issue potentially irritating me severely as time goes on. I assumed the pre-launch battery complaints were exaggerated; they weren't. I was almost worried I got a faulty battery until I started reading more about it online... wow.


Anyway, that's plenty enough about hardware.


The bundled software: WTFLOL
Aside from some of the features of the OS itself, the bundled software is all bad. AR games are worthless after playing one of them for about 10 minutes (and what am I going to do, carry around these cards with me everywhere I go? Nintendo eReader says hi!), Face Raiders is un-fun after about 10 minutes too, and even more crappy because of the 0.3mp camera's blurriness, and the Street Pass feature is useless in America. Even living in Silicon Valley, I rarely see anybody in public with any DS at all, let alone the 3DS. The music app... I mean really, this is another one of those things that is entertaining for all of 10 minutes, too. All in all, I am wishing I could just boot straight to a game without even seeing the crappy OS at all unless I deliberately back out of the game to get to it. Unfortunately, I can tell that this is not going to happen, because when I updated my OS this morning, an OK Go music video appeared on my desktop screen. WTF is that? I do not want that. I do not care about that and do not want it and am irritated by it. Clearly Nintendo sees OS updates as an opportunity to push content on me that I do not want, and I do not agree.


You can make Miis... and I've always loved Miis. I'm happy they included them with the 3DS. Miis are always entertaining, but one especially entertaining thing about the Mii software was the hearty gut-laugh I got when I chose to "create a Mii based on a picture of myself", and my Mii showed up looking absolutely nothing like me, and without any facial hair, either (I have a full beard and moustache).


On a very positive note, however, you can return to the OS screen when you're in the middle of a game, and there is a "notepad" type application which allows you to take notes on the game you're playing and save them. This is way overdue and is a very very cool feature. Supposedly, you'll be able to browse the web on your 3DS in the middle of playing a game (in the future), too, which brings me to my next segment...


The NOT bundled software: WTFLOLAGAIN
Cruising around the 3DS' OS, I have discovered that there is a button for DSiWare, and also a web browser! Awesome! Well, that would be awesome, but neither of those actually useful and desirable applications are included! Yes, that's right... Even though the menu options exist in the OS, clicking on them shockingly results in a system message which shamelessly states, "This feature will be available through a future software update"! Excuse me? Hilariously, it doesn't indicate when these features will become available, either.


Let's get to the point
Overall, I am impressed with the 3DS hardware. It is cool. All of the glaring flaws I mentioned however, make me upset because I thought I was buying Nintendo's new portable handheld, when in fact...


Did I say portable?
This is not a Nintendo portable. Sure, by label it is, but by definition, it is not. Quickly take a moment to remind yourself of the underlined phrases and text above, if you will, and then continue from here:

First, let's take a quick look at the 3 simple things I (and most people) expect from a "portable handheld console", and Nintendo's answers to them with the 3DS' design:

Demand #1: 

• I want to be able to comfortably see the screen, see it clearly, and also have comfortable/intuitive access to the input mechanisms regardless of my environment or my body's orientation.

Nintendo's answers:

• If you have a headache from the visuals or cannot see clearly, turn off the 3D (the biggest new feature). 
• If you want to play with 3D, please be sure to hold the 3DS straight and 12 to 14 inches directly away from your face only.
• If you want to play with 3D, make sure you are stationary, as the vibration of a car, bus, or trolley will make any consistence in viewing the 3D difficult.
• Sorry, but refocusing your eyes from the 3D display to the 2D touchscreen display, and back and forth and vice versa is going to be disorienting, not just because of the 3D effect, but because of the difference in screen sizes.
• We believe the analog slider is so much more important than a d-pad, that we will design and position the d-pad in a fashion that makes it ineffective unless you're reclined with armrests or sitting at a desk.
• We don't consider "playing in the dark" to be important, so making the select/home/start buttons difficult to navigate with nothing but your fingertips is our choice.
• We also have decided to put the stylus back where everyone hated it (which caused us to put it in a proper location for the DSi) and make it even more difficult to find with your fingertip while the screens are facing you.

Demand #2: 

• I want to keep myself entertained for both short and long periods of time while out and about.

Nintendo's answers:

• You can only view 3D for 30 minutes at a time, and then we recommend a 10 minute break. 
• The battery we've included only allows for 3-4 hours of play time, possibly 5 if you turn all auxiliary features off, the screen brightness down, and play without sound.
• We will not include any additional power options in the box, such as a spare/swappable battery pack, nor will we even include these as first-party options. We will also not even include a car charger or a USB charger in the box either.

Demand #3: 

• I need to feel confident that my hardware was designed to be durable and resistant to nature.

Nintendo's answers:

• We will make the casing of the device shiny and glossy again, despite using the more durable matte finish on the DSi.
• We will include a big hole beneath the highly-sensitive analog slider, so you can risk ruining it permanently with every gust of wind you encounter.
• We will not make any obvious improvements to our hinge design, despite all the problems our customers have had with them in the past.

I don't believe this machine should be considered a "portable handheld console", nor do I believe it should wear the "DS" name. The fact that it has two screens that are so completely different both in size and in functionality is ridiculous the more I think about it, and hardware/functionality-wise, this thing is "3 steps back" from where they left off with the DSi, in terms of providing a proper "portable handheld console" experience.

What's my mothafuckin' name?

There are just so many obvious and subtle/small reasons why the 3DS' identity crisis has crippled its design. I won't repeat everything, but think back to all of the underlined stuff I mentioned earlier.

In the end, I would've much preferred they make their 3D machine a single-screen handheld, named, designed, and marketed around delivering 3D content to you primarily while you are in the comfort of your own home. Here is what could've been, if it weren't for the shoehorned-in DS branding:

This is obviously my quick-n-dirty mockup, but the fact is; without branding as a "portable" device, and without hijacking the DS name for marketing purposes, we could've ended up with a far superior product that didn't suffer from a severe identity crisis:

• One large, brilliant 3D display that spans the whole height of its casing
• No off-sized non-3D second screen to confuse your eyes and mind, and inflate the price
• A thicker case altogether, to make it easier to hold
• "Playing-while-plugged-in" design fundamental in mind from inception through production
• A proper d-pad and buttons
• A delicate look and feel for an expensive and not-very-portable machine

Overall, ditching the DS branding and marketing this device as something to be enjoyed more like a laptop than a gameboy would've provided a much better end-product for the consumers it's targeting. 

In conclusion

I love my 3DS, and I just can't wait for more awesome new software to come out for it... and fortunately for me, I don't ride in the back seats of cars or ride the bus often, I don't get out much because I'm always working or at home... and many of the other "non-portable-nature" issues about the 3DS don't have a major impact on me. The battery life annoys me, but it's very rare that I'm without a charger for any of my devices for more than a few hours. All the flaws that make it non-portable are actually mostly non-issues for me personally. I also have a DSi for long trips, and an awesome Android to keep me entertained otherwise... and because I have 2 portable handheld devices that do their jobs properly, I wish my 3DS was designed with only 1 idea in mind... To deliver 3D content, and not to try and be something it isn't: a DS.

Zelda 4: Minecraft

Hey Guys,

Sorry myself and Tactics haven't been posting for anyone still paying attention. As it turns out, money and time are things that we seem to have less of these days. Thankfully, we have shiny new jobs that give us weekends off.

I wanted to make a post on something Tactics and I had a small discussion about, spurned from the rather depressing display by our Nintendo brothers that has, progressively, been getting worse.

While some might contend with me, 3DS seems to be coming to a slow in it's excitement. I wasn't very happy when I read the following.

There's more, of which Tactics will eventually articulate -- the short version of which is that we'd better see some great stuff at E3, or we're in for another Gamecube roller coaster.

That said, lets get to Zelda.

Zelda 4: Minecraft

If you haven't heard of Minecraft (and you have) do yourself a favor and pay homage to people who know more about games than Nintendo: Meet Minecraft

Let me give you some background to how this came about. I love zelda. A lot. Or did, anyway. An excerpt of our discussion:

Atlas: Do you know what's depressing? When I had an NES, you know the first game I played was Zelda. Well, I didn't have an SNES for a long time. The first time I saw, or even KNEW about it was at a party center. You'd go there, rent out a section of this warehouse for a few hours for a kid's party, and let them play around At this place, you could play SNES, Sega, etc. Well, I went up to a table that had SNES and saw that they had another zelda game. I was SO ecstatic. Legend of Zelda, A link to the past. This was my birthday party. And instead of playing with my friends, I played that game. The whole fucking time. When my parents got that for us for christmas....That's the game they got me. That's how excited I was for Zelda after that. I have never had that same feeling since. Z64 was fun, for sure. And I was excited for it...

Tactics: /nods

Atlas: But I haven;t been into zelda since

Atlas: And then I read REGGIE of all people, someone who I think has better sense than Iwata, and Miyamoto, and all those fucks

Tactics: /nods

Atlas: and he tells me that Zelda is this premiere title I want?

Tactics: he's got business sense though.

Tactics: he doesn't understand zelda.

Tactics: and neither does aonuma.

Atlas: No one does

Atlas: no one in nintendo understands zelda

Tactics: and miyamoto is just "beyond that career-wise"

Tactics: which sucks balls.

Atlas: And donkey kong, I haven't played

Atlas: there's only 2 wii titles (of the recent release) that I want

Atlas: Golden Eye and DK

Atlas: And both are apparently lack-luster to the Nintendo Fanboys

Atlas: which worries me

Atlas: Because those fanboys know what I like

Atlas: They really do

Atlas: EVen the small bits of epic mickey I played got a little...meh.

Atlas: You'll see when we play it.

Tactics: /sigh

Atlas: I just don't get it dude

Atlas: I just don't.

Atlas: The platform is fun

Atlas: And no outside dev team is making quality ass games

Atlas: so who do we turn to?

Atlas: Nintendo

Atlas: And they shit on me for it

Tactics: /sigh

Tactics: i know bro

Tactics: this is why i'm saying that e3 is literally their last chance

Tactics: or wii is dead.

Atlas: And so, I stay in computers. Because it's an open platform that I still have control over.

Atlas: I can reward companies and make an impact on PC, dude

Atlas: And PC, making it's comeback

Atlas: From farmville to fucking Minecraft

Atlas: Minecraft has more zelda in it than zelda does

Atlas: w

Atlas: t

Atlas: f

Tactics: YEP

Tactics: minecraft is zelda 4

Tactics: as far as i'm concerned

So, as coined by Tactics, Zelda 4 = Minecraft. And that's sad.

But beautiful at the same time. I love PC as an open platform. On a whim I crush and reward those who bring me joy in my relaxation time with video games. It's apart of the core, and the expanded audience -- you can customize it for what you play; although it is expensive.

Computer propaganda aside, what is it that has Nintendo believe that it's fall back should be it well known titles?

Mario, Link, Donkey Kong, Samus, Kirby...these characters of Yesteryear have seen better days, and while they've aged and maintained career better than most Child Actors their usefulness should not be that of a constant resource.

I'm not excited for Zleda anymore. most of the time that I hear about a new Zelda, I forget about it in a day or two. There's no hype for me there. After beating Darksiders the other night, I've been more excited for Darksiders 2, and the prospect there, then a Zelda game -- and that's sad because Darksiders gameplay was as lackluster as it gets.

Why is minecraft better than almost every Nintendo title I've played for the last few years?

Re-playability

What Minecraft does best is allow the player to create. The world is an open canvas for a player to express themselves upon. but it's not just that simple. I used to play games three times over because each section of the game was WORTH my time in doing it again. Like a...egh....good book or movie (not to be compared to these mediums in any other way) I liked key aspects of these games that kept me playing.

You replayed Mario, or Zelda, not just because of challenge, but because of those levels you liked, or the remembrance of achievement, or to try something differently. In minecraft, your re-playability is only stifled by your own imagination. And sometimes, that imagination can be scary. I've built towering keeps, villages, port towns...I've dug deep within the earth, made secret chambers...

And at some points you feel truly alone -- a man left to his cruel devices for eternity in eden, with only animals and the undead to be as friends. And when even those forces are gone you are alone. And that is a truly terrifying experience. That can only be found in a game like minecraft. Emotional Re-playability is truly something interesting.

Exploration

I have been rewarded time and time again in games for exploration. My fondest memories were Final Fantasy1 and Zelda (the original), in which exploring the overworld yielded secret treasures, hidden caves, and so forth, to probe the imagination. It has been since that this feature of exploration continually becomes more and more of what the industry deems an 'unneeded' portion of their games -- this faux 'we know what players want' mentality that is more about cutting the old, wonderful features for some inane mini game or puzzle sequence.

More on point, the simplest feature is that minecraft is huge. The world you make is literally larger than the earth. Resources, although technically limited, are pretty much limitless for just one person. It's not just the expanse, however. Countless caves, mountains, valleys, and now new LAND TYPES are available -- you can find a desert, or stumble upon a hidden lake in a cave.

Not only that, but reward is given the lower you go. Material needed to create can be found deep within the earth -- materials needed for your constant building and protection.

Player-Driven

The easiest bit, is that players drive the modification of the game. You can modify how things look, etc. But these are just mods. When I say player driven, I mean both your personal story and your drive.

Players create their own story simply by giving yourself an objective. I want to build a mud hut. I'm dissatified with this hut. I will make it a castle! But I also want a garden...some secret passages...some minecrats.....

And it grows so quickly from there, where you begin building everything your mind can imagine for only the purpose of doing it to complete the task. This bleeds into DRIVE, you perpetually push yourself into creation. You never seem to stop until pure boredom sets in or until you actually have to do something in the real world because HOURS have passed.

Single player/Multiplayer

I can choose. That's a fundamental. The game, in it's gameplay, doesn't change if I'm in Multiplayer or Singleplayer, other than the emotional exploration (you don't really freak out when there are 2 other people around); What I can say is this: something that Zelda, I feel, can never do is Multiplayer.

This game executes that with a flawless precision that is, above all else, spectacular. It becomes a new game, with new objectives and ideas. Suddenly more than just a one-man-eden you watch as statues and buildings of other design erect around you as your friends build and blend design. The game never ends, truly, but the fun is still there, waiting for me.

Oh, and you can make swords and armor. Talk about nostalgia. I even re-skinned my character to be link as soon as I found an appropriate one.

Don't take this at face value -- "Zelda should be legos" mentality. The fundamentals of the game are there. The gameplay elements are there. What we've been missing in our yesteryear games...is there. And this dude has literally made something like a few million off of this game. You tell me that Nintendo couldn't use similar fundamentals and make a boatload more.

Take a page, Nintendo. It's the most I can hope for.

-Atlas out

A Reasonable Bump

Sorry for the lack of content guys. Life does catch up to us from time to time. What I can say though is that in the mean time, I have something for you to see.

I don't much go to the escapist anymore. When I do, it's for one reason.

Movie Bob.

While most people obsess over Yahtzee, his reviews (at least the videos) tend to be one-dimensional. Funny guy, though. However, what most people MISS is Movie Bob.

Bob knows movies. Like, Really knows them. He is what Journalists should strive to be. Yeah, a little biased sometimes (within reason), funny, insightful, and dissects the work based on the merits of it's industry and expectations. At the end, he tells you his opinion if you should see it or not. Some times he'll even give you alternative movies to watch for a better understanding or simply just a better telling of the story. All-in-all it's great.

But he's not who I'm trying to Bump. No, it's these guys.

While relatively new to Escapist, they're actually tearing down the veil of gaming, something few Journalists do. I look forward to seeing how they evolve on their new site, and hope you all check out their videos. So far, I've been impressed with the insightful work.

-Atlas Out

The hype around the 3DS anti-piracy system, and why it WILL be cracked

I've been hearing a lot of rumors flying around about the 3DS copyright protection system. It seems that the most common belief right now is that each individual Nintendo 3DS game cart will have an encrypted "key" stored within which, upon its first insertion into a 3DS unit, will "pair" itself to the console. After that, using 3DS' cloud-like networking structure, it will constantly ping a Nintendo server to verify that the paired key-and-console are legitimate. Nobody has any idea what will happen if the server responds "mismatch", of course. How brutal will Nintendo be with this policy (if in fact this turns out to be true)?


Well it doesn't matter. I'm a pretty strong advocate for open-source, and even piracy in general doesn't bother me too much. Restrictive DRM, however, does bother me. Fortunately for Nintendo, I am at their whim: I will absolutely ignore the ridiculous DRM policies they put in to place for some beautiful 3DS goodness. Nevertheless, I get the feeling that I, and many many many many other people, will be buying 2 3DS' at some point.


I will want to play homebrew with my 3DS. I will want to download 3D movies which are not legally available for the 3DS. I will want to play ROMs of old games that I own on my 3DS. I will even admit that I will certainly want to pirate games on my 3DS.


I am tired of regretting my game purchases. Sick and fucking tired. I am tired of believing in a game, paying 60$ for it, and being left completely flat because the developers of the game were too far up their own conceited asses to give a gamer like me what I *thought* I was going to get from their game. In short, I'm tired of "taking the leap" for games that I end up hating, and ending up with nothing to show for it. What can I do with an opened, already-played game? Sell it to Gamestop for 20% of its original price? I'd rather keep it around as a reminder of what not to do next time.


Anyways, so Nintendo is supposedly developing this hyper-advanced cloud-network that is supposed to keep pirates out for good, and everybody seems to be freaking out over this. What a joke. There is absolutely *nothing* that is going to stop the 3DS from being hacked, cracked, flashed, and pwn3d... and I bet it won't even take more than a few months, absolute tops. Whatever method you'll need to apply to hack it initially? It very well could be as complicated as it was with the Original DS back in the day: Buying a PassMe from Hong Kong, removing the battery cover and using a pin to push down a secret button on the back to flash some custom firmware you downloaded from a shady underground internet forum, all at risk of bricking your DS if your finger slips for a spilt-second... but people will do it. Lots of them will.


Sure it's easy to be confident enough to say "x device will get cracked by hackers! :D" because we all know that the vast majority of electronic devices do sooner or later, but the fact of the matter is that the 3DS is going to be target #1 for hackers upon its release, and I wouldn't even be the slightest bit surprised to find out that hackers already have 3DS dev kits with which they're already testing cracks for it. The fact of the matter is: Whoever cracks the 3DS first has a very unique opportunity to capitalize on it. Whether they will personally or not is anyone's guess, but if they don't? Somebody else will.

In eye-widening, mouth-watering, cock-stiffening, wife-angering 3D, baby.

Oh yes, I went there. The 3DS will be cracked as quickly as humanly possible for one reason: big beautiful boobies. Well, I guess there are a few more reasons in that same vein of thought, but I'll just stop there.


*ahem*


So as I was saying, in a very professional and non-creepy way... >.> *ahemAHEM* 3D pornography. This is the next big entertainment phenomenon (3D is... not pornography-- that's really really old xD), and you can never count porno out. With each new entertainment medium comes the march of the naked and fearless-- Nickelodeons, movie theaters, television, the telephone, VHS, the internet, DVD, HD/BluRay... Every single one as far back as anyone alive can remember came with its share of porn.


Many say that VHS "won" over BetaMax because of porn, and I'm hard-pressed to argue with them. At that time, the only way to get decent porn was to go to a shady sex-store (which were hard to find), buy a magazine at a liquor store (which was "embarrasing"), or go to one of those creepy theaters where Pee Wee Herman whacks it to watch "Deep Throat". VHS came around and changed all that-- video rental stores had "private rooms" curtained-in (remember seeing those as a kid and knowing exactly what they were?), and anonymous mail-order tapes were also a huge huge hit. The point is, pornography can really drive an entertainment medium, especially when that entertainment medium offers some very unique values. Why didn't DVD and HD porn have quite the same impact as VHS porn did? Because they didn't offer much of a significant different in experience....

...but anyone who saw this in 3D inherently understands the advantages presented by the new 3D medium.

So how is this going to happen? Here are my theories:


Crazy topsy-turvy world where Nintendo goes "crazy"
There is a chance-- I know, I know, don't laugh: I'm actually being serious--That Nintendo will see the 3D porn "movement" as an opportunity to further expand into the blue ocean. Nintendo might (however unlikely this is, they just might) actually allow pornography to be available by some special and exclusive means on the "online market" or whatever means they are looking to use for distributing 3D video content. Hahaha... I knowwww... but porn on the 3DS is going to happen anyway. Nintendo might as well embrace it, protect it, and do a whole lot of damage control PR to preserve their family-friendly image.


Nintendo non-chalantly and innocently includes a flash-capable browser
...and the members-only websites start coming. This seems actually much more likely than Nintendo allowing full-scale distribution of porno movies through their online store... but I digress...


Membership-only internet forums
If Nintendo decides not to include either of the two previous options to beat the hackers and porn enthusiasts to the punch, I believe that before the 3DS is even cracked, hacked, and flashed that we're going to see internet forums popping up all around the intert00bz with a similar model: Pay an upfront or monthly fee, join our forums, trade friend codes with us, and we will send 3D pictures, taken with our DSs, of LIVE NAKED HARDCORE TEEN AMATEUR POV COLLEGE SEX ROMPS!!!


Movies shot with the 3DS camera
I believe that once the 3DS gets hacked, they'll figure out how to record video with that little 3D camera, and subsequently figure out how to send videos to each other, even if this must be done ad-hoc. It doesn't matter, people will still get them.


Movies on 3DS carts (or a cart-shaped adapter)
For the next stage, I believe that there will be porn on actual 3DS carts, or a cart-shaped adapter that connects to something else. These carts can be distributed illegally from, you know, wherever, just like the R4 and M3 Real pirate DS carts were, except they'll just have porn on them.


Hacked-up mobile browser
Its pretty likely that, given the graphical prowess and decent CPU/RAM horsepower on-board, that someone will simply create a hacked up mobile web-browser using webkit to create something like SkyFire recently made for mobile phones. Flash on the 3DS is entirely possible once you've rid yourself of that pesky DRM.


Cracked SD card slot
The holy grail of 3DS hacking, of course, will be cracking the SD card slot which will prove to be the most difficult task. This will take the longest, but will be the most sought-after hack for sure. The possibilities are endless when you've got your own media from your home network available to you.


Nintendo might not even know. They may have absolutely no idea how serious this really is. I mean, I know, it's Japan >.> They do tend to watch a lot of porn there, but still. If Nintendo thought they had it bad with DS and DSi hackers breathing down their necks at launch-time... They're going to have a whole new nightmare when the masses get started on the 3DS... The people have spoken, and they want to see fucking.

Hilarious.

The most popular Free-to-Play MMO in the world could possibly be a side-scrolling fighting game:

http://dungeonfighter.nexon.net/

Apparently, it made some headlines:

2 Million Concurrent Users

Also, a decent read

BUT ATLAS. THIS IS A MICROTRANSACTION MODEL. WE HATE THESE GAMES BECAUSE THEY DO NOT FORCE US TO PAY A MONTHLY COUNTRY CLUB FEE.

I know it's hard for the elites out there to swallow. Trust me, I've been there. As it turns out, people actually like deciding when, where, and how to play their games.

The real trick now is going to be to entice your players to want to spend.

Of course...

It seems...

Like there's a trend.

How strange that an insanely popular game in China is a side-scroller.

Strange indeed.

The Great Content Divide

There seems to be a great divide in the mentality of various game development companies today. Some developers believe that the ideal way to create a game is to restrict the amount of content that appears within the game in the name of creating an engrossing story that unfolds in a very particular way, and there are other developers that believe that the ideal way to create a game is to give you so many choices, so many options, and so much content, that you barely know what to do with yourself.

Sure, there are developers who fall somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, but my two most recent gaming experiences have been Alan Wake and Dragon Quest IX, and I thought it would be interesting to compare the two, strictly in terms of content, leaving graphic fidelity, music, and interface completely out of the discussion. Certainly, graphic fidelity, music, and interface are a part of the "experience" of the game, and are therefore related to content, but that's not the "content" I'm talking about here-- I'm talking about the actual gameplay experience: The universe in which the game takes place, the story of the game, the replayability of the game, the length of the game, and so on.

Here are some quotes from developers that worked on the game Alan Wake, and my thoughts and interpretation of the quote after each:

"We wanted to make a character and we also wanted to make a story that would be interesting to hardcore gamers, but also people who normally wouldn't be playing an action game"
Note that they are emphasizing their story that they wanted to make. This is what they set out to create from the beginning: A character and a story, with the goal of appealing to a broad range of consumers.

"We decided we wanted a natural storyteller as the main character, and that's where the idea of using a writer... and his writing's coming true, so he's a natural storyteller in the game"
Again, they're emphasizing story-- In fact, they wanted to put so much emphasis on their story that they eventually decided to just make the lead character an author.

"We want a thriller to be more than just a story, so whether it's how we use the camera or how we pace the action, there's several layers of the thriller elements built straight into the gameplay, and we think that's important for the game."
Here they are, stuck on themselves even still: "how we use the camera" or "how we pace the action". The developers of Alan Wake clearly believe, right here form their own mouths, that the way they use the camera and the way that they pace the action are important for the game. They believe that this makes it a "thriller".

"We need to go more linear, control the pacing, and tap into those emotions to get the player's pulse racing. We needed to be able to control the soundscape, we needed to control the environment, the weather, the music, and stuff like that."
After having initially announced the game as a "sandbox-style" game (also known as "open world", like Grand Theft Auto or The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion) they reconsidered this commitment during development of the game. How could they tell their amazing story that everyone was going to love like that?

"When you have the player turning up to a love scene in a monster truck when they should be showing up in a Cadillac you know something's wrong."
Yes, "something is wrong" alright: The story isn't unfolding exactly as you intended. A problem indeed.

All of these quotes demonstrate the developers desire to control the game for the player. Everything is about them and their story that they wrote. This is only half of The Great Content Divide, however, and the evidence of the other half, also found within Alan Wake, is below:

"We are using television series as a model for storytelling"
There they go with the "storytelling" again, but let's focus on the first part now: What is "the television series model"? The television series model is to release content bit-by-bit. To quite literally withhold content that you intend to create, for release at a later time. In other words, to deliberately create an incomplete product.

"From the very beginning, we have intended Alan Wake to go on beyond the first game, so this is the first step, in a way"
More evidence of this can be found here. These developers, believing that their "story" was going to be so appealing to "hardcore gamers, and to people who don't normally play games", that they had a vision of expanding the content of Alan Wake beyond just the "first" game. They are so wrapped up in this mentality that they are actually telling a gaming website this, during an interview, before the game even releases. Also in this interview, (AGAIN: This interview takes place weeks before the game even releases), the developer confirms at least 2 DLC (Downloadable Content) episodes (which they expect you to pay 7$-10$ for on top of your initial $60 purchase) to get additional content, and also discuss the impending Alan Wake 2. They then go on to say this:

"We definitely want to make Alan Wake 2. We have the story mapped out. We know where it's taking us. As I said, season one will be conclusive but there'll be doors left open for a bigger story"


Now they're even referring to... the video game... Alan Wake... as "season one"? Is it just me or does this sound absurd? Not even the Heavy Rain guys had balls like this.


(Source 1) (Source 2)


The opposite side of The Great Content Divide
On the other hand, let's take a look at the mentality behind the developers of another new game, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies. Again, I've compiled some quotes about developing this game, and my commentary will follow.

"[The 'story' is] not that long, in particular."
The developer is commenting on the "ideal length of an RPG", prodded by a popular "game journalist" website. This is very interesting to me, because it is only recently that games have been described in terms of time when asked about their length. This isn't how it used to be many years ago: The "length" of a game was measured by the content, such as how many "levels" there were, or how many "quests" you could do. Nonetheless, he is prodded for an amount of "time", to which he responds, "40 hours [...] for no particular reason. It just sounds like a good number.", seemingly making a mockery of the time-to-length paradigm.

"With Dragon Quest VII it took about 100 hours to complete the game. What we focus on is not the time constraint but the amount of content we put in."
He comments further on the difference between the journalist's way of measuring the length of a game, by "time", to the way that he thinks of measuring the length of a game, by "content". He references the PlayStation  entry in the Dragon Quest series, which was Dragon Quest VII (Dragon Warrior VII here in America).

"For Dragon Quest IX one of the biggest things was being able to create your own character, and your party members too. The importance of it is that you can customize the face, the name, or something like that so the party members are really a reflection of you. It becomes more of your own experience. Particularly because of the undefined elements of the characters, we wanted it to become the player's story. "
Here, the developer is demonstrating the polar opposite as their goal with Dragon Quest IX, from what we heard out of the Alan Wake developers. He wants it to "become the players story". He wants the characters and party members in the game to be "a reflection of you", to make it become "your own experience". He doesn't seem too interested in controlling how the camera acts, or how the weather behaves, or how deep the characters in the story are, and instead seems interested in leaving these details to the player to manipulate to their liking, so that the "story" of the game is custom tailored to their interests, created in the player's own head by their own imagination.

"You can vary that experience depending on what type of skill the character has and also sometimes you can build up special skills to increase damage that you do to the monsters."
Again, he is saying that "you" (the player) can "vary the experience depending on [what you want]".

"Oblivion. The Elder Scorlls IV: Oblivion [has been an influence to me recently]. I like that a lot."
This quote comes from Yuji Horii, the creator of Dragon Quest, however in another interview the Producer of Dragon Quest IX, Ichimura-san, also mentions the original Diablo as another source of inspiration. What are the similarities between Diablo, Oblivion, and Dragon Quest IX? I'd say (on a base level, anyway) that freedom, customization, and the motivation to "collect" are the biggest similarities. It is also worth noting that none of these games are "episodic" in nature, like a TV series is. Sure, all three of them offer additional content in some form, but this is not episodic content. None of these games are meant to act as a television series, or a movie; they are meant (if compared to anything other than games) to act much more like a "Choose your own adventure" book-- meaning-- The content is all there, but, how you interact with it, and how the story unfolds, is entirely your choice.

"I believe there is some type of universal message [throughout all Dragon Quest games], like love for humanity, or the importance of keeping on trying. But I don’t really like to come out and push that, or shove it down anyone’s throat."
Here, Horii-san was being pushed by the interviewer to connect all the different Dragon Warrior titles via a common theme or overarching grand story of some sort. Mr. Horii was not interested in doing this, as each title is always developed completely independently from the others as finished products, and do not connect to one-another. This of course means that the story is never open-ended, left open with a sequel in mind, or with additional content pre-planned for the "next installment" in the "franchise". He concludes that he doesn't want to push a message or story down anyone's throats.

"With DS you don’t have to be stuck in front of the TV, you might be laying down… it’s very flexible in the time you can spend playing, and how you can play… so I believe it is fitting to this day and age. "
This is not as much about game content as it is just the mentality of the developers and their desire to give people playing the game as much freedom as possible. I think that the degree of physical freedom provided by a handheld console, as well as the intimacy of having your own speakers and your own screen held within your fingertips, are important factors with how the player absorbs the content, and clearly so does Horii-san.

"When you purchase a game for a few thousand yen (3000 yen = $34), you want to have the value of the game"
Interesting that a game developer is speaking in terms of the value provided to the player in terms of dollars and cents (or Yen in this case). You do not see this often. Interesting... this sounds familar! I believe i just wrote an article with a section on exactly this type of thing (in reference to whether or not a console was "affordable", and differentiating "price" from "value".)

"For kids you really want to have a game they can play for a long time. For adults, maybe they will play for six hours and if the gameplay is good maybe they'll be happy and want to play longer. But for kids, they might only get a couple of games a year and I would like them to continue to be playing."
It seems as though he is saying here that he aspires to do the unthinkable: Pack so much content and so much freedom to control the game in your own way and customize the game to your interests that you could potentially play it for the better part of a year! Sounds like someone spent as much time playing Oblivion as I did ;)
 
It is also interesting to note that the developers of Dragon Quest IX don't speak in terms of other media. They don't cite television or movies as direct inspirations for the type of gameplay they want to create.


(Source 1) (Source 2) (Source 3) (Source 4)




Old and new schools of thought
A comparison of the two developers reveals some stark differences in history and experience:

Quick comparison

Remedy Making games since: 1996 First console: Xbox/Playstation 2 Total number of platforms developed for: 5 Games of note: Max Payne(s), Alan Wake

Square-Enix Making games since: 1986 First console: Nintendo Famicom (NES) Total number of platforms developed for: 20+ Games of note: Final Fantasy(s), Dragon Quest(s), Star Ocean(s), Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Actraiser(s), and many more

I think it is interesting to question where this difference in game design philosophy originates. It could very well just be a personal preference with no outside influence I suppose, but that's not very interesting. Let's consider that some of the factors mentioned in this comparison may have something to do with it.


It's interesting to note that Remedy's developers started making games 10 years after Square/Enix. Remedy likely grew up playing Square and/or Enix games in their youths, so why take such a drastically different path of development? Perhaps, after playing games that encouraged freedom and imagination (as many of Square and Enix's games did in the 80's and 90's) they felt as though they could create a "better" game using their amazing imaginations for us? It's not clear, but there seems to be a definite difference between many gamers who began in the late 80s and early 90s (we'll call them the NES generation) and the gamers who began in the late 90s and early 00s (we'll call them the PlayStation generation, which coincidentally has a nice ring to it).


I think the facts in the table above speak volumes about experience with creating popular games in itself, and I won't elaborate any more on the differences between the NES and PlayStation generations and their preferences in regards to gameplay mechanics and content delivery. This has been done to death by a friend of 8bitdream, Sean Malstrom, and I don't think I can achieve much more on this subject that he hasn't already written veritable novels about. Nonetheless, this difference in mentality is important when understanding the difference in design philosophies when comparing Yuji Horii and the old Dragon Quest team from Enix, with Remedy and the Alan Wake team.


Mine is better than yours 
So which type of game is better? That's not what this post is about, and I don't intend to argue that either is "better" than the other. This post is about demonstrating the divide between games that favor linearity and story progression to games that favor freedom and imagination. It seems to me that I would be a hypocrite if I said that one was "better" than the other, since I personally prefer games that allow me, as the player, to choose what I want from the game. So with that, I allow you, the reader, to choose which you like better from this post :D Certainly, this post is slanted toward freedom and imagination because that is my preference, but there are many gamers who enjoy linearity and story-driven narrative.


A happy medium
Neither of these games, so far, are selling particularly well in America (where they have similar brand power, which is to say, "not much"). This is interesting to me: Advertising, console exclusivity, and many other factors play a role in sales, but ultimately it comes down to content, so I wonder if there is some sort of middle-ground between these two extremes that Americans prefer in regard to "amount of content". More content = more value, but there is certainly something to be said about a game like Dragon Quest IX that has so much content it can almost feel overwhelming at times even for a seasoned veteran of the series like myself.


My experience with these two games
"I am (barely) A. Wake": I was looking for a Resident Evil 4 experience from Alan Wake and did not get it. The mechanics of the flashlight and the guns and the batteries were all cool, and the visual effects were very impressive, but the storyline and cutscenes took over far too often, and I ended up feeling as though I was just on a quick mission to run from cutscene to cutscene. The little bit of auxiliary content, such as the faux-Twilight-Zone videos on screens inside of buildings were fun, but the "manuscript pages" were boring and I lost interest after reading only the first two. I gave up on this game rather quickly, as I realized it was nothing more than "point flashlight, shoot two times, watch another cutscene, lather, rinse, repeat". There was literally nothing else to do aside from collect coffee thermoses with no tangible reward (huh?) and crappy manuscript pages. I quit the game after playing through the first 4 chapters, and ended up severely disappointed with my purchase. There was so little to do in this game, so little to actually experience in my opinion, that I practically fell asleep.


Dragon Quest(s) IX: I was looking for a Dragon Quest III experience from IX, and I got even more than I bargained for. There is so much customization and freedom in the game it can seem overwhelming. The cutesy-4poo and campy style of the cutscenes and scripted characters might be a turn-off for some gamers, but I find it all very charming. The alchemy pot brings a whole new world of discoveries, collecting, and item customizing, and the random treasure maps you can find all around the world add dozens (hundreds?) of new dungeons to the game as you progress. Treasure map dungeons are not part of the "story", they're completely separate and totally optional-- It's just more content for you if you decide to consume it. There are 9 classes/jobs for your characters to train under that I've seen so far, and I expect that there are at least 3 more coming up. I have completed a dozen side-quests and have unlocked a dozen more, and every town I visit is bustling with NPCs that want to give me even more! I am literally avoiding taking on new quests right now. There is so much to do in this game, it can feel overwhelming at times. I'm going to my job tired every day now, because I can't stop myself from staying up past my bedtime to "do just one more thing". 


Getting ahead of yourself
The two experiences, as I've said here, were vastly different for me. The real bummer here, for the Alan Wake team, is that even my friends who prefer linear, story-driven narrative-type games also burned out on Alan Wake very quickly because of the severe lack of content presented within. How will Remedy justify creating and releasing their planned DLC packs now? How will they ever get the investor capital to create the already-planned Alan Wake 2? Perhaps Remedy should learn to walk before they try to run: If they'd focused harder on putting all of their ideas for content into the single game (remember? "season one"?), and then considered DLC and a sequel later, they may not have been stuck in this position.


Is content king? Finding the middle-ground
What games do you think would make a good comparison to these two, but sit in the middle-ground in terms of content? Games that are essentially story-driven, but not necessarily "ruled" by the storyline? Games that performed well in America, had little brand power, and had a popular console upon which they were published? I thought of only a couple, but instead of writing about those I thought it would be fun to see if any 8bitdreamers had any in mind. Perhaps I can write a follow-up post at some point using some of your ideas and points?